As I mentioned in the previous post, others’ naivety and a bit of luck are extremely important in order to ‘pass’.  However, a third component is present as well: one’s ability to capitalize on that naivety and that luck, one’s predatory spirit.

Many would categorize, somewhat unfairly, that the psychopath’s tactics are predatory but would not use the same adjective to describe transgenderists.  Neither group is particularly liked by society, but society is willing to give transgenderists the benefit of the doubt whereas society assumes that psychopaths must be evil.  I would argue that alignment means nothing to this point, both transgenderists and psychopaths are merely capitalizing on the deficiencies of people.  The transgender person may be using your naivety and their own luck to get what they want: to be perceived as a member of the sex they are approximating.  The psychopath is doing the same actions looking to get whatever benefit they want.  The implications are the same.

I’ve mentioned how many transgenderists resort to being hypergendered.  I think the reasons are twofold.  One, many transgenderists are so repulsed by the thought of gendering themselves congruent to their biological sex that they run as far away as possible from anything that is classified as being appropriate for their sex with respect to gender roles and stereotypes.  But I also believe that this hypergendering could be a result of realizing that many people are too deficient to distance themselves from the false equivalency that the more a trait is expressed, the more that the underlying object must belong to a grouping that exhibits that trait.  Many transgender females will speak in falsetto and wear the most gaudy of outfits and cosmetics in order to convince you that they are biologically female.

The tactics used to pass as a transgender person need not be so forceful though.  Some of the most successful transgender people are those that retain some of their former identity while mastering the accepted traits of their new identity.  A simple change in the way one walks, one talks, and one shows, or does not show, emotion can seal the deal for presenting yourself as a biological member of the sex you are targeting.  People are naive, there is no reason to jeopardize that gift by running into parody territory.

For psychopaths, the same rules apply.  Learning how to lie properly, learning to fake emotion, and learning the way others tick goes far in understanding how to use another person.  Many, incorrectly, assume that I am a very caring and generous person.  What they do not realize is that the large tip I gave was to preserve reputation, that birthday card was to make you think that I am doing more than memorizing your birthday in order to keep you close, and that money I loaned you was to ensure that you had internalized pressure in order to return a favor in the future.

In order to pass, the person must capitalize on their own luck and the naivety of others.  They must be intelligent in exploiting others via those two givens.  There is no immediate success in passing.  A predatory spirit that prowls on the deficiencies of others is needed to truly be seen as a person that ‘belongs’.  I would know, I do it on two fronts.